The general grunted slightly, closing the manilla folder and placing it back on a pile, before turning back to Miles. "Commander, I am sorry that we've had to recall you to active duty, but your country is in a deep pile of shit, for which we have been completely and woefully underprepared. How much do you know about DuoHalo, its relative impact, and the experimental Quaranteam serum?"
Miles shifted slightly, then leaned forward. "First off, please feel free to call me Miles when decorum permits, General. Second, my experience with DuoHalo has been sudden and personal, but beyond that, I have little actual information. Same with the serum."
"Very well, Miles it is. Okay, the information I am going to share with you is very sensitive, highly compartmentalized, and may not be disseminated outside of need-to-know. Understood? Good. DuoHalo is pretty much Covid's bigger, much meaner brother, fresh off a two-week bender, hopped up on meth, and pissed to the gills because someone called his momma fat! It has a crazy mortality rate, especially for men, and particularly targets teenagers with prejudice. DuoHalo has been 100% fatal to anyone between the ages of 11 and 17. Among women, it has a mortality rate of 30-45%, and among men, the rate is much higher, ranging from 80 to 95%. These rates are for cases when immediate medical intervention occurs. Without intervention, the rates skyrocket." She paused to let this information sink in. "The average incubation is 12 days, give or take, from infection to first symptoms, with the infected contagious the whole time. Once symptoms appear, usually around day 13, they can include coughing from lungs filling with fluids, sore or clogged throat, labored breathing, shaky or uncoordinated muscles, and difficulty thinking. Death usually occurs within 48 hours of presenting symptoms. Official death tolls are not being reported, as they would no doubt lead to mass panic and widespread civil unrest. Let's just say we'll be looking back at the Spanish Flu and thinking about the good old days. Are you tracking all of this so far?"
Miles had blanched at the blunt assessment of the virus' deadly impact, especially on teens, and simply nodded.
"So, the Air Force has been working since early this year to develop a way to combat this motherfucker, and the best we've been able to come up with is the serum to which you've recently been introduced; we've been simply calling it the Quaranteam Serum, produced by Veraxiontic Pharmaceuticals. The serum is made up of a concoction that binds itself to the recipient's DNA before beginning self-replication within the individual's lymphatic system. The end-product acts as a sort of super white blood cell, targeting DuoHalo and other ailments. The problem arises with the complications. The serum can only be successfully given to an adult female. It cannot be directly administered to an adult male patient, as it literally tears the man apart trying to find female DNA strands with which to bind. However, once given to an adult female, the benefits can be transferred temporarily to a male partner through the exchange of bodily fluids during sexual congress. The benefits to the male can last for a week or so before they begin to lose effectiveness. Still following?"
Miles nodded. "We were told that the male would need multiple partners to receive adequate levels of protection and that once partnered, it was dangerous for the female to encounter the semen from any other male. What's with all of that?"
The General nodded. "That's correct. The female has much higher resistance to DuoHalo or other diseases than what she passes on to her male partner. To elevate the male's resistance, he'll need multiple transfers from several partners. The more partners, the higher the male's cumulative resistance. I think our current data indicates that a male needs in the neighborhood of 7 - 10 partners to achieve more than 90% resistance. Which reminds me - you are under-partnered, Commander, and will be receiving two more partners this evening, and another pair no later than Sunday. As for encounters with other males, merely getting another man's semen on a bonded female's skin is enough to cause what looks like a chemical burn. Ingesting, or otherwise receiving another man's semen internally, can be fatal."
Miles' eyes widened first at the news of more pending partners, then went even wider at the explanation of the danger to a bound female posed by another man's semen. His mind started going down dark paths of potential pitfalls, and he immediately killed off those thoughts, returning his focus to the General. "Thank you for the explanation, General Palmer..."
The General raised her hand, stopping Miles. "Please, while we're in relative privacy, you may address me as Your Highness," she grinned," or simply Martha," she finished with a wry smile.
Miles snorted, "Thank you, Martha. As I was about to ask, why is the Air Force setting up a FOB outside of Gainesville, and what is it you need from me?"
Martha nodded to the captain. "Captain Swami, would you take it from here?"
The captain looked up from where she'd been taking a few notes, flipped a few pages on her notepad, and began speaking, "Commander, your scout troop looks to have been the catalyst for an outbreak in this region. Florida has been fairly lucky thus far in the pandemic, with only a few statistical bumps in the already-steep infection rate. This new event has become more significant. As best we can tell, one of the staff associated with the facilities where your group was holding their activities had just returned to the region after spending a season doing landscaping in the Virgin Islands. He traveled by small private plane and slipped through airport screening. We assume that he had only himself been exposed either immediately before, or during his travels. When he came to the campgrounds, he interacted with a few of your adults working in the kitchen, who then spread DuoHalo throughout the others present during the final closing party at the end of the camp. Once the staff at Shands started reporting cases of DH, an advance team from MacDill came up here to investigate. As the scope quickly became apparent, regional command pulled the trigger on the Air Force setting up FOB Waldo, using this as a launching point for a regional response and advanced serum distribution facility. We have subsequently begun a campaign to introduce the Quaranteam serum to this region of Florida, and yours is one of the first teams we are creating as part of it."
Miles nodded, having gritted his teeth at the explanation of how his troop was initially exposed, then scowled as he realized the resulting fallout from that exposure. He then nodded at the captain to continue her briefing. "Understood so far. Please go on."
Swami checked her notes, then resumed, "Unfortunately, the spread of the virus may be outpacing our efforts to contain it. Certain measures will be going into effect later this evening, effectively creating an information black hole, wherein communications cannot enter or leave this area. Regional telecommunications will be suspended for the immediate future, interrupting all internet and cellular lines of comms, and martial law will be imposed, with a mandatory isolation order being directed at all local residents, as well as a curfew. Roadblocks are already being erected along all roadways 10 miles out of Gainesville, and Interstate 275 will be shut down to the north and south, with traffic being rerouted along hurricane evacuation routes to the east or west. The Air Force is assembling a series of Medical QRTs that will set up treatment units at major venues in and around Gainesville while we strive to get enough of the serum delivered to attempt to limit casualties as best we can."
Miles looked back and forth between the two officers. "What are we looking at here?", he asked with concern.
Captain Swami referenced her notes once again, then spoke, "Our best estimates are that 50 to 65% of the local community will have been exposed by now, possibly more, and many will be entering the final stage by this weekend, it not before, as with your family. We will begin the containment measures tonight and will be broadcasting instructions to the local community via local news and radio, as well as linked from a splash screen all internet providers will host, asking people to remain within their homes and complete the Oracle questionnaire while we make final preparations for the vaccination centers. By tomorrow morning, no later than oh-eight hundred, we should have first-wave vaccine centers up and running. After that, it will depend on how the civilians respond. We are trying to be cautiously optimistic, but similar instances throughout the country have gone sideways in many different ways, so it could all go FUBAR. We're trying to avoid that."
Miles swore softly, closing his eyes for a moment to gather his thoughts. He then opened his eyes and looked at the General. "Martha, I appreciate you briefing me on all of this. How can I help? I am not trained in catastrophe response, but can certainly lend a hand if you need the bodies..."
"That's not where we can best use your skills, Miles," she cut him off with a slashing motion. "It's what comes after that we expect to need your assistance sorting out. We know there will be losses; we've already played this scenario too many times. What comes next, we're hoping you can help us do a better job. Those who survive will be placed into Teams - again, as you are experiencing - and those Teams will potentially be much larger in size than even the most devout of catholic families. Modern housing is simply not prepared to host these new Teams, and we need to begin to figure out short-term options, as well as what sort of long-term needs they will have so we can begin to establish the necessary housing infrastructure to accommodate them. How many bedrooms should be considered basic? Are there ways in which housing can be constructed to better facilitate ease of expansion? What do we do with current housing? Not to mention the need to identify the responsible actions that need to be undertaken short of just demolishing whole swaths of homes to make room for new ones.
